The Forest Alliance NSW has released a public statement calling on the NSW Government to urgently begin the work of reviewing the future of NSW public forests and the state’s timber industry.

Forest Alliance NSW  - Public Statement

22 August 2024

The Forest Alliance NSW is calling on the NSW Minns Labor Government to urgently begin the work of reviewing the future of NSW public forests and the state’s timber industry.

Minns Government Ministers have continually stated that a blueprint for the future of the timber industry and forest sector in NSW would be developed. We urge the Government to get moving on delivering on this commitment so there is time within this term of Government for action on that plan to be implemented.

The Forest Alliance NSW remains committed to pursuing an end to native forest logging in NSW within this term of Government.

Science tells us that the clock is ticking for forest-dependent wildlife, like the Koala and the Greater Glider. Allowing the ongoing logging of native forests pushes these, and other species, closer to extinction and undermines Government commitments to reduce carbon emissions and address biodiversity loss.

The Alliance supports an open, transparent and accountable process that addresses the destructive and unsustainable impacts of the native forest logging industry and charts a path towards a sustainable plantation based timber Industry for NSW.

To be credible, a key focus of a roadmap for the future of our forests and timber industry must include an examination of an exit from public native forest logging.

The Alliance has today written to Premier Chris Minns outlining clear expectations for this process:

1. The Alliance is a critical stakeholder that should be engaged in an inclusive and transparent manner in all aspects of the process.
   
   
2. There must be clear and transparent terms of reference and the Alliance expects to be consulted on those terms and the structure of the process before it commences. Those terms should include:
   a. An examination of an end to native forest logging and a transition of industry to plantations as a key focus.
   b. An assessment of the suitability of Forestry Corporation as a forest manager into the future.
   c. An assessment of opportunities for the redeployment of affected workers into other environmental management agencies, including the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
   d. Future tenure and management of public native state forests when no-longer available for logging.
   e. A requirement that any recommendations are consistent with National and Global commitments to carbon emission reductions and biodiversity conservation.
   
   
3. Any advisory or consultative body established to support this process should contain a person with expertise in forest ecology.
   
   
4. The process should be public and transparent and information used to inform analysis should not be restricted under commercial-in-confidence or cabinet-in confidence provisions unless absolutely necessary. Where this is deemed necessary the existence of any such information, the nature of the information, the author or owner and reason for its non-disclosure should be made available to stakeholders.
   
   
5. Key data informing this process, especially yield and wood supply assessments and ecological and threatened species analysis, and the data or models used to determine these assessments, be made public and be subject to independent analysis or peer review.

The Alliance stands ready to engage constructively in a public and transparent process that is evidence based, will genuinely assess an exit from native forest logging and recognises the central role of environmental stakeholders in developing policies affecting the future of our public native forests.